Hi. We are a design/style LA based company specializing in mixing eclectic styles on moderate budgets. Also we have a strange amount of fun blogging about all our design and style adventures. Right now I’m happy to say that I’m Target’s home spokesperson, bringing accessible/stylish design to the masses.

The Pillow Trick Your Bed Might Be Missing...

Our Extra Long Lumbar Pillow Roundup

In case you haven’t noticed there is a pillow trend happening right now in the bedroom and we are very into it over here at EHD. Although we covered it a few years back on the blog here, it still remains just as relevant, functional, and stylish which is why we wanted to introduce it to any new readers or any of you out there that are still trying to perfect the “how do I style 12 decorative throw pillows on my bed every single morning” routine, which may or may not be working for you. Plus there are a lot more out there now (perhaps they read the blog?).

Bed styling is tough, and something that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. And although the pinterest worthy beds floating around on the internet may seem like they have simply tossed the duvet perfectly across the bed and draped a blanket casually on top in one swift easy go, said process can sometimes take rounds and rounds of revisions to get that “effortless casual” look that we all want for our beds. And because no one has the time or the mental capacity to spend more than a few minutes making their bed every morning, for you we introduce the “extra long lumbar pillow” to help simplify the process.

Forget the three, six, nine, twelve…. decorative pillows and just throw on one of these long decorative rectangular pillows IF you want a decorative pillow at all. You may lean more simple and not even want to add a decorative pillow at all to your current bed setup, but if you are looking to add something decorative without the complications of all those extra pillows, then the pillows that we have pulled together for you below can help you out. We have one currently on our bed and lay it in front of our two sleeping pillows when we make the bed in the morning, and at the end of the night we can just grab it off and throw it on the end of the bed bench. Which is much easier to deal with then a handful of decorative pillows on the floor.

Our friend Amber Lewis, is also a fan of the trend and although we both added a small accent pillow in front of the larger lumbar, it is definitely not necessary and your bed will still look pulled together with just one large pillow.

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And in case you still aren’t convinced that and need some additional visual proof that this pillow styling trick works, here are a few others that we are into from the web to give you a bit more inspiration.

The Vintage Round Top, which is where we stayed as a team during our Round Top shopping trip even pulled it off with a JUMBO sized lumbar pillow in the Master Bedroom (which I obviously didn’t mind calling mine during our stay).

All of the pillows we’ve pulled together below are at least 30″ long which means that they are large enough to use for either a queen or king sized bed, and although we can’t promise a better nights sleep with them, we can promise a far easier bed making routine in the morning. So, here are a few of our favorites divided up by price.

For the price I love A LOT of these guys, but would definitely add: #2 and #6 to my collection and the inner granny in me is really wanting to find a place for #11. Some of these are one of a kind, so if you like them snag them up quick, but we did try and pull from retailers and vendors that have quite a large selection just in case one of these does sell out. Next up is the $50-$150 category.

Fringe and pleating are having a major moment for me right now so I obviously love #16 and #26 but I also love #18, #5, and #25. Next up is our last category at over $150. And while some of these may seem a bit expensive keep in mind you will only need one of these pillows to use on your bed rather than a handful of smaller decorative pillows.

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So you’ve convinced me that I need to buy a lumbar pillow, but my biggest question/conundrum still remains…. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THESE DECORATIVE PILLOWS WHILE YOU ARE IN BED??? Chuck them on the floor? Pile them on a chair? Get some kind of giant basket to put them in that takes up prime space? It all seems so messy… and even a single lumbar pillow is bulky and takes up room… As much as I want to have a nicely styled bed, I also don’t want to wake up each morning to see my bedroom floor cluttered with discarded decorative pillows…. Please share some solutions!!

I’m with you, other Lucy. I just have no interest in dealing with extra pillows. I actually like the look of a simple bed with a normal number of pillows. If someone ever plans to photograph my bedroom maybe I’ll consider buying my bed a special outfit.

For us, we put the pillow between the headboard and the mattress, which actually makes it really nice for sitting up in bed and gets rid of that weird space/gap. The only downside is that you have to fluff the pillow every morning to get it back to its original shape.

I definitely just fling them on the floor, ha! It’s definitely not the greatest look, but we make the bed right away in the morning so I don’t have to actually stare at them on the floor. We also only have 2 that are decor only, so it’s not out of control or anything. A bench would definitely solve the problem if we had room.

I actually keep mine on the bed while I sleep! I either hold it through the night which helps me sleep or I just keep it in between my boyfriend and I because its summer so the pillow acts as a sort of buffer for our body heat. When I nap I usually just nap on the pillow as well. Mine was from a marshalls/tj maxx store and it has held up really well to daily use!

Love this post! This is one of those design tricks I wouldn’t have picked up on my own but is so simple and easy to implement that of course I’m going to implement it. Who would have thought one long pillow would be so effective?

The last two days have been awesome- I have been debating painting our entryway console and buying an oversized lumbar pillow for our bed. These are things I think about and no one else seems to care about- and yet EH addresses them AND makes me want to follow my trivial décor dreams. 🙂 love the examples.

Styling the bed is always so tricky for me. Especially because I bought the opposite of what I see everywhere: My duvet is coral, my sheets are blue/teal… so nothing similar to the lovely neutrals I see in your blog and all my pins! (At one point in my life I’ll stop been driven to all bright and colored… being 35, I hope that’s soon!) And then I always see that the bed is open, but I prefer to cover EVERYTHING with the duvet (I do feel it protects the sheets more from dust), plus the pillows we use for sleeping are the memory foam ones, that while I find so comfortable, they are a styling horror… So I’m always struggling with the view of my bedroom… A perfect example of how random and not driven decisions affect the look of a room! 😉

And sorry, I realize that my comment is not really about the lumbar pillow…

I hear you! I’m drawn to bright colors too, while pinning neutrals. Ha. At least my house is moving toward blues and grays instead of completely wackadoodle, but it’s a process! I just bought the most boring white plates so my dining room table will look a bit less chaotic.

Okay, not to hijack the thread, but can we talk about these memory foam pillows? I found this page because I was looking for styling tips to help hide them. My husband has one and his only dictate for styling the bed is that I absolutely under no circumstances can even touch that pillow. I don’t have one, so the bed ends up looking a little lopsided because our pillows are so different. It’s such a dumb problem to worry about, but it does bother me when I walk into the bedroom.

I love this styling trick. I went out and bought these pillows after you posted about it the last time. One additional tip for others searching for the perfect pillow: If you find one you love on Etsy, but they don’t make it in the right size, you can sometimes contact the seller for a custom order. I did this for the pillow currently in my master bedroom, found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/511502542/african-mudcloth-pillow-covers-available?ref=shop_home_active_1 . It looks like she has an actual listing for one in 14 X 36 now though!

Somewhat unrelated, but on our wedding night my husband and I stayed in a hotel where there was a bed-width pillow behind the other pillows. It was lovely! I have been searching for one like it ever since, but no luck so far. Does anyone know what these would be called or where to find one? It was just like a regular pillow but extra wide so it took up the width of the bed.

dearest emily henderson,
im doing my best version of the latest budget bedroom (modern traditional)design posted here. the pink pillow is no longer available. is there one of these (or another) that could replace it and the two green pillows pictured in the design?

Yes. We thought about adding that! I think that the trick is not having the pillow case look like a pillow case that opens on the side, but instead one that has a zipper or french closure. But I thin that is a great idea.

You can totally do this – I did the same thing, with an old Ralph Lauren floral sheet. I did put a zipper in the back, so I can take it out and wash the cover, because we fling it on the floor at night,, though I am going to try shoving it behind the bed pillows as recommended above.

I heart extra long pillows! Two things. (1) I think they work on a sofa too. And (2) buy table runners and sew backs on them and stuff them for a DIY version. You can find some cute embroidered ones at Home Goods regularly that are cute and cheap. And they’re EXTRA long then.

Any excuse to see your blue velvet headboard and I’m in! You used to have the most amazing pieces of vintage furniture. I really miss reading/seeing your vintage finds, craigslist posts, flea, reupholstered pieces you used to write about.

I’ve ordered a long pillow with vendor #9 – ZDKilim and I highly recommend them. The hardest part was finding an insert, but 2 – 12 x 21″ inserts worked fine for on the bed. It may not look right in high traffic areas like a couch/bench though.

my beloved body pillow that got me through three pregnancies was repurposed years ago for this purpose. it’s the perfect length for my full size bed, I use it to lean against when I read (along with a euro size pillow behind. I sewed a cover from some vintage blue and white linen and a sweet trim. It’s a nice touch, to a crisp white bed, in my opinion.

I dig the unipillow, I just push it back a bit and leave it there, with my regular pillows in front of it. If I were taller, that might not work, but I’m totes average, so my feet don’t hang off the end of the bed.

I have been on the lookout for one of these ever since I read that pervious blog post about them. I scored a beautiful navy/cream one with light pink fringe (seriously its so adorable, yet sophisticated!) I got it at a Marshalls/TJ Maxx store for less than $30!!! They make my bed look so amazing AND I love sleeping with it. Its very comforting to sleep with. Also you+your team called this trend waaay before it ever became a thing so good job on that!

On another note, I know there has been alot of discussion on whether this blog is still accessible to the average reader and I just wanna say that posts like these with reasonably priced and useful decor items are something that make this blog worth it to me.

I am excited to have had discovered YouTV Player. Seriously man, I used to get so bored before coming across this app. It is easy to use and offers tons of cartoons, TV shows and films to choose from. Once a while I end up discovering great shows too, and keep recommending it to everyone. Try out the new app if you haven’t already. To know more about this app please click here http://youtvplayerz.com/you-tv-player-apk/

I’ve loved the uni pillow ever since I saw Jenny Komenda make one from Josef frank fabric for Joanna Goddards bedroom years ago! I actually found a cute one from land of nod last year that’s on my bed now!

I’m with you, other Lucy. I just have no interest in dealing with extra pillows. I actually like the look of a simple bed with a normal number of pillows. If someone ever plans to photograph my bedroom maybe I’ll consider buying my bed a special outfit

I make these for my summer bed by sewing a tube, then finishing both ends with full length strips of Velcro. Then I fold my feather duvet into a sausage and stuff the resulting lumbar pillow with it. The Velcro gives the pillow a pleasing structure.

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Emily is a stylist, author and T.V. host with a strong commitment to vintage inspired approachable home style for every single person. Perfection is boring; Let’s get weird. learn more

Interior Design Blog by Emily Henderson

I started this interior design blog in 2010 as a journal of my style and home projects with the belief that design should be approachable, informational and accessible no matter what budget.

As a home style expert who has a strong commitment to peeling back the intimidating layers of the world of home decor, and showing how every person can have a beautiful home that represents their personality, no matter what the budget.

After styling for magazines and catalogues for years, I started my own interior design blog, won HGTV Design Star, and have gone on to host my own hit TV show Secrets from a Stylist, Author the book STYLED, and create the design firm Emily Henderson Design.

My motto has always been to write and publish on my blog what I personally want to read about.